Chapter Twenty-Five: All by Myself

I heard nothingness, a blank slate filled with, nothingness. Was this death? I wouldn't think so, or I wouldn't feel the faint pain somewhere behind me. If it was, than I thought death was different, beautiful sunny skies, painless days, and laughter spent with my whole family, all locked in this supposed bliss of death.

Light poured in, as I opened my eyes back into reality. As my eyes slowly focused I picked up on all the little dust particles in the air, as they drifted past my face. The pain from behind me centered in on the back of my head, probably due to the fact that I passed out. Groaning I reached a sore arm to rub the back of my head, when I heard a sharp intake of breath. "Hey I think she's awake," Lucy whispered, I could barely see her from the lying position that I was in. But apparently she was talking to no one, because no other person breathing could be heard besides me and hers.

She got up from the seat, only to kneel next to my bed and look over at my face. "What happened...." I started to groan, but she placed a finger to my lips.

"Don't speak, you've been through quite enough this week," she hushed me sadly. Her eyes had a sort of solemn quality to their silver gleam. Her gaze travelled back to her now fiddling thumbs.

"Okay..if you expect me to just not speak..." I started again, scooting up in my hospital bed. But there was a roar of commotion out of the door, yelling of indistinct voices. She jumped up and rushed to the door. I looked around, it looked like any old hospital room, not that I'd been to many of them. I could smell aneseptic just seeping through every crack and crevice here, and the squeak of sensible shoes was loud enough to hear from several rooms away.

Lucy cracked open the door, only far enough to let herself outside of it, her hand still clasped on the doorknob. "Look guys, she just woke up, can you give her a little peace here," she whispered, as if I still was unconscious. I rolled my eyes, kinda touched by her worried attitude over me. Then I heard another voice, "Listen Lucy, I love you much, but at this point I going to have to put your little worries behind me, there are more important things in life," and her hand disappeared as she was shoved out of the way of the door.

The door swung open to reveal Chris, and Jake in his arms. They were both shocked looking for a moment, before having grins from ear to ear. My eyes were widened in a sort of surprise/horror, like was this really torture, was I being put to a crime for taking out the most notorious vampire in the history of their kind. It wasn't until Chris put Jake down and he ran as fast as his little legs could carry him, to my bed, jumping up and down. My eyes filled with tears, and I leaned down to pick him up. I hugged him close as I sobbed harshly, his scent smelling of baby powder and fresh cut grass, so familiar to me, I was home.

He curled up into my lap, crying lightly too, "Kenzy....please don't cry," he said between gasping sobs against my shoulder. That made me laugh a bit, at his own worries over me not crying while he was bawling. Chris had silent tears running down his face as he sat down on the seat right next to the bed. The door was closed, and we all cried in our own little worlds.

"I'm so happy you are alive," I murmured with a sniffle, reaching for a tissue on the night-stand with the arm that wasn't holding Jake close to me. Chris met my eyes, "I 'm glad you are too, we thought you weren't..."

"Why wouldn't you think I was alive?" I asked, confused.

"Ambrosia," he whispered, and his head fell in his hands. "I can't believe we've all fallen to the hypnotic evil underneath that mask of hers. I believed every word that she said to me, and that led to you being dead to us all,"

I nodded, understanding his guilt of believing her. My guess I would have fallen under the trance she had cooked up if I hadn't been cleared up with my jealousy over Chris and her.

"Wait...you thought I was dead...how come Lucy said you two were dead?" I asked.

He looked up again, his eyes hardened into crystals, "She said what?" he asked coldly.

Lucy chose the wrong moment to make an entrance, because she chose that one to knock on the door and creak it open. "Sorry, forgot my purse, I need money for the vending machine." She said quietly and walked over to the table. Both of our eyes were trained on her, deadly like a sharks, finally she looked up from her purse to see our gazes. She shifted uncomfortably, "Would you stop that, you are starting to scare me,"

"Oh, I think you deserve to be scared, considering you almost killed me with the heart attack I almost had when you told me about their death," I told her coldly. She froze, her eyes widening in shock, "I'm sorry....it was the only way..." she started to say but Chris exploded.

"How dare you put her through that! The loss of her brother! Are you insane, Lucy?" he roared, and with each passing word she flinched back a little more. "She needed to change, so we could both get out of there safely, with the Vampire Lord out of commission," she said, her voice shaking uncontrollably.

Chris looked ready to take another round at her, when I spoke up, "I guess she's right," they both turned to me, and I sighed, "if you hadn't done that, I wouldn't have ever had a powerful enough emotion wave to overcome the blockade that was keeping me from transforming. Also the Vampire Lord would still be loose, and hunting us all down," Lucy nodded, "See, she agrees with me,"

"That doesn't make me like you any better, though." I replied coldly, and she nodded sadly before exiting the door, the zippers on her purse jangling noisily.

Chris looked back to me, looking much calmer. He reached out a hand, and softly stroked the side of my face. I sighed inwardly; glad I had them both back.

After that, we talked, about everything. The invasion would have taken us down single handedly, but we had gotten the upper hand when Ambrosia had gotten control of the commanding group of vampires. Let's just say, nobody in the pack was exactly happy with her, and it didn't end prettily for her. Half of the pack was sitting in the waiting room, waiting for the results of when I would wake up; the other half was back at the village, beginning to piece everything back together.

I started to feel tired then; Jake had long ago fallen asleep in my lap, curled up in my arms. I yawned wildly, right in the middle of a story about Francis the baker, but he stopped, "You need to get back to sleep, unconsciousness doesn't really count as actual sleep, you know, "he said with a wink. He then stood up to leave, "Wait..." I asked weakly, "Stay with me...please,"

He didn't even consider it; he went back and sat in the soft leather chair. He grasped my hand, and I finally felt totally at ease.

My eyes were closed and I was losing the last of my thoughts to sleep, I almost didn't hear Chris whisper, "I love you, McKenzie Gardens, I always have,"